The things where we failed as Indians-II

Continuing the part-I, there are many other things apart from education, parenting, and liberalism that threatens the very fabric of our society. A lot has been said about all these topics, but still, I felt the need to put all these totally different problems under one umbrella.

Finances: We go to school for some 18-20 years, and finally after the end of our academics, all we do is run after the money. The irony is that we train ourselves for 20 years or so to do something else entirely and that's why most of us are inept to handle our finances. When a person doesn't know how money works, all he/she can do is to work for someone else. Remember, the employer will always provide you with the least amount that will keep you away from resigning. Financial acuteness comes only with practice like any other skill. When Warren Buffett was a teen, he used to sit with investors to know the working of the markets and we all know where he is today. Not everyone will become Warren Buffett but surely the knowledge of how the market operates can give you some serious advantage. It falls upon the schools and colleges to better prepare the young to understand how money works but the main problem in teaching all this is the attitude of academicians towards money. Most of them firmly believe that money should be kept as away as possible from academics but the reality of the matter is that all the money that is throughput in the academic or any other system is only done to further generate more money. Understanding how money works is a science of how people react to different opportunities and products, how consumers behave, how money keeps a system running. I bet most of the people reading this have no idea how money is generated and how the economy runs. And I'm not talking about money being printed at a mint, I'm talking about what makes paper an authentic form of transaction and why can't we print it more. Paper money is considered to be one of the greatest discoveries of the modern world. So, where does India fit in all this economic mess? Our finances are so poor that we only talk about GDP but not about happiness index or per capita income. We try to compete with the US and China but in reality, we should be competing with Scandinavian countries whose happiness index is miles ahead of us. Research has shown that basic income policy tends to make a country happier. But to achieve that thing in India, taxes are needed to be paid properly. Less than 10% of Indians pay the taxes and until and unless this is improved, talking about basic income is futile. 

Equality: I know this is a controversial topic but everyone is a bit confused about what equality means. I don't accept the premise of equality in which is everyone should be treated equally. However, for a crime people should be treated equally, but in general, people should be treated fairly not equally. There is a huge difference in both 'Equally' and 'Fairly', there are two aspects of this which we need to carefully examine. Firstly, humans have evolved to follow the hierarchy, there are multiple studies that show that Homosapiens have always formed groups to survive, to manage any group, hierarchy is needed, otherwise, chaos will prevail. Secondly, how can you expect to provide the same level of respect and resources to an artist and a soldier? People will always be treated according to the kind of work they do in society. Each stratum should be treated fairly but treating them equally will be outrageous. People associate pride with the kind of impact they are having on society and it will always be different for each individual depending upon their profession. The next thing which comes to mind when we talk about equality is feminism and quotas. I'll illustrate this with few very simple examples, In India, according to law, a man can't be raped (Go and read the definition of rape in our constitution), he can be sexually harassed but not raped. And I don't see this as a problem of equality, once you look closely you'll understand that rape is not a heinous crime because of its physical or the non-consensual aspect of it, it is heinous because the shame it brings to a girl in society. Before you thrash me on this, understand this, it is women who have associated pride and dignity with their body, and once that is lost everything is lost. Pride is very dear to all humans and since men generally don't associate their pride and dignity with their sexual body parts thus the law regarding male rape doesn't exist. Whether the law for male rape should exist or not can be discussed but the point remains the same that things are different for genders, groups and we should learn to appreciate the difference. For instance, in Japan, Samurai's used to kill themselves if somehow they used to fail in protecting their masters, the same couldn't have been asked for the women of that time. Samurai's associated their pride with their words and once that was lost they used to take their own lives. Another aspect of equality is women's quota, in parliament and everywhere else. If an equal representation they seek then they should also be willing to clean the sewers (almost 100% of this is done by males) just to get equal representation. If women want true representation in society it should be done on all the fronts not only in the highest possible position of powers. Scandinavian countries whose sole purpose is to push for equal opportunities have again and again demonstrated that equal opportunity for both men and women will never produce equal output. In some sectors, men will be dominating and in other women will take the charge.  Which sectors will be more financially advance is something entirely different. Another thing that I've heard multiple times is the gender pay gap, which is supposedly 1 dollar for men and 60 cents for women for the same work. Multivariate analysis has shown it multiple times that this assumption is totally false and if it is true why not all company bosses hire all women staff to save them a ton of money? An argument can be made that since man inherently doesn't want women to success that's why they won't do it but in reality, even a woman CEO also won't do it. And lastly, patriarchy exists because that's how society evolved in all the time of war and hunting, and in war whoever owns the bigger stick will oppress the other be it the oppression of blacks, children, or women. You can't expect a person to be gentle when he is killing people and animals on a daily basis. In war-like situations, the animalistic side of a person takes over his/her brain and in that he/she can act as wildly as possible, even to the extent where they rape the female or children without any remorse. This trait directly transferred to us via male chimpanzees. History is filled with wars where men experienced the horrors unimaginable and as a result of that society became patriarchal. Patriarchy will definitely go away, but not so soon. 

Social Media: This blog will remain incomplete if I don't talk about Tiktok. There are several points that I wish to make regarding the effect of Tiktok, especially on Indian teens. The fundamental problem with Tiktok lies in its interface, it's AI is forcing you to watch the content without any choice given to you, other platforms like youtube at least give you the choice of which video you want to see, Tiktok AI is designed specifically that it creates a series of unending, non-informative videos thus making you lethargic and demotivated. There are studies that show that empathy which makes us human is degrading in today's youth because of the extra on-screen time. Empathy builds when you sit alone and contemplate and apps like FB, Instagram, Tiktok are designed to do the opposite, they never allow you to sit idle. Other studies show that getting likes and comments releases dopamine and its effect is similar to the effect a gambler feels while gambling and an alcoholic while drinking. Tiktok has made the situation worse, it's pushing both the educated and uneducated youth in a state where working with patience will become extremely difficult for them, if this continued people won't be able to show patience to achieve anything meaningful in their lives. I personally don't hate any Tiktokers, but I'm worried about where there are pushing the society with their meaningless videos. To make you understand my point, let me give you an example, let's say that someone pulls your pants down and people laugh at you and everyone becomes aware of the fact that someone pulled your pants, it doesn't mean you'll go and ask everyone next day to pull your pants down on a daily basis. Being famous and becoming worthy and skillful are two different things. The saddest part of all this, young children are being fooled by this premise of being rich and famous without any actual skill set and real hard work. When you put out some content, be aware of what its impact gonna be on society, then only you can be considered as a serious artist or a content creator. If you dance naked on the road, people will surely watch and laugh, but that doesn't mean it's productive. Today's youth is not learning about great personalities like Abraham Lincoln and Swami Vivekananda but instead wasting their time on something that will never bring content in their lives. Just to give an idea of how worthless Tiktok videos are, millions among us are watching a girl licking a toilet seat because she was demonstrating that corona couldn't get to her and guess what, she got infected. The other problems which Tiktok brings for its creator are, once this trend is over these people will be left with no real skills, and secondly, let's say this trend continues, people will ruin the progeny. To take care of children people need a certain level of maturity. As of today, this trend is rapidly growing where fools are using their children as some kind of a prop to increase their followers., this is dangerous for the entire generations to come. If this continues we'll have a generation whose self-esteem will depend only on others' perspective, no one will aspire to be great because most of them wouldn't have known about the great personality this land has produced. People will become incapable of concentrating for a longer duration of time, contemplation will completely vanish from their lives. In short, we'll stop producing the men and women of the caliber of Bhagat Singh because no one would have known what greatness meant. At last, I would like to quote Shashi Tharoor "If we don't know what we are coming from? How will we appreciate, where we are going?". Go, and open your laptop or pick a book and read and read as much as possible because these Tiktok videos will never inspire you to serve your nation or bring content to your life.

Here are the few personalities that inspired greatness and taught a lot of different things to the world

Leonardo Da Vinci - Read about his inventions

Chanakya - Pick up Arthashastra and learn how a state functions

Richard Goggins/Arnold/Bruce Lee - Most enduring men on earth

Dandapani - If you wish to learn the practicality of mediation

Autobiography of A yogi/ Living with the Himalayan masters- If you wish to learn about spiritual experiences

Michael faraday - What is the life of a scientist

Abraham lincoln's Autobiography - How to stands in the face of adversity

Swami Sarvpriyanda lectures - If you want to know Upanishads

The Winning by Jack Welch - Wants to know how corporate works?

Bhagat Singh - What legends are made of 

Swami Vivekananda's life - Life of a monk

Jordan Peterson/Ben Shapiro - How to debate

Richard Dawkins/Sam Harris - Atheism

Christopher Nolan movies - If you want to know about the storytelling

Netaji Bose - Tactician

Adi Shankara - What  and How Hinduism started

Shivaji - What a great leader is like

and many other great personalities.